Appropriations: Part 3

All spending bills for the Earth and space science agencies are in play right now! The House and Senate Appropriations Committees each passed their own version of funding legislation for NASA, NOAA, NSF, USGS, EPA, and DOE. Now, the full House and Senate must vote on the bills.

The House and Senate have both passed their versions of the fiscal year (FY) 2019 Energy and Water Bill (which funds DOE) as part of a mini spending bill packages that included other appropriations bills.  Now each chamber will need to come together and reconcile the differences between the bills before it can head to the President’s desk for signature.

In the coming weeks, both chambers are expected to create minibuses with the other spending bills to complete the appropriations process before funding expires on 30 September.

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

	FY 2017	FY 2018	President’s Budget Request for FY 2019	AGU Request FY 2019	House FY 2019 Bill	Senate FY 2019 Bill
Overall	$19,653.30	$20,736.14	$19,892.20	$21,700.00	$21,500.00	$21,323.40
Science Mission Directorate	$5,765.90	$6,221.50	$5,895.00	$6,500.00	$6,680.60	$6,400.30

*NASA budget in millions, rounded to the nearest ten thousand

Thumbs up 

• NASA’s overall growth was continued this year in both the House and Senate bills
• NASA’s Science Mission Division received a 7.4% increase in funding in the House and a 2.9% increase in the Senate. Notably, the Planetary Science Division received a 23% increase in the House while the Senate cut it by 1.2%.
• The Senate bill increased funding for Heliophysics by 4.6% over FY 2018 levels.
• Mirroring the House spending bill, the Senate also included report language recognizing the value of the latest Earth Science decadal survey.
• NASA’s Office of Education is renamed the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program and received $110 million, or a 10% increase in funding.

Thumbs down

• NASA’s Planetary Science Division received a 15 cut in funding from FY2018 spending levels.

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

	FY 2017	FY 2018	President’s Budget Request for FY 2019	AGU Request FY 2019	House FY19 Bill	Senate FY19 Bill
Overall	$5,675.00	$5,827.00	$4,560.76	$6,200.00	$5,159.00	$5,480.00
National Ocean Service (NOS)	$521.10	$565.09	$382.00	–	$557.58	$587.80
National Marine and Fisheries Service (NMFS)	$851.54	$882.96	$810.00	–	$875.26	$924.89
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)	$514.13	$548.52	$322.00	–	$503.34	$549.26
National Weather Service (NWS)	$1,121.57	$1,157.10	$1,053.00	–	$1,143.00	$1,161.38
NESDIS	$2,203.60	$2,100.57	$1,640.00	–	$1,661.71	$1,743.20

*NOAA budget in millions, rounded to the nearest ten thousand

Thumbs up 

• The National Marine and Fisheries Service (NMFS) received the largest funding increase, with a 5% increase over FY2018 funding levels, followed closely by the National Ocean service, with a 4% increase.
• Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) received flat funding in the bill, which restores much of the cuts that the President Request outlined. The Senate provided 71% more funding to OAR over the PBR. Additionally, the OAR Climate Research Program received a 1% increase in funding, which has historically been flat funded.

Thumbs down

• NOAA received $5.48 billion, or a 6% cut from FY2018, in the Senate spending bill.
• NOAA saw large cuts in its Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction (PAC) accounts. PAC is responsible for acquiring and improving capital assets, which are mission-critical to all agency programs and contribute significantly to achieving each of NOAA’s Strategic Goals.
• The largest cuts in the Senate bill were aimed at NESDIS, NOAA’s Satellite line office. NESDIS received a 17% cut, which most funds being cut from the NESDIS PAC account (-19%).

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

	FY 2017	FY 2018	President’s Budget Request for FY 2019	AGU Request FY 2019	House FY 2019 Bill	Senate FY 2019 Bill
Overall	$7,472.22	$7,767.36	$7,472.00	$8,450.00	$8,200.00	$8,100.00
Research & Related Activities	$6,033.65	$6,334.48	$6,150.68	–	$6,651.50	$6,560.18

*NSF budget in millions, rounded to the nearest ten thousand

Thumbs up 

• NSF’s overall growth continued this year in both the House and Senate bills
• The Senate bill provides a 3.56% increase (compared with the House’s 5% increase) for the Research and Related Activities account, which includes funding for the Geosciences directorate (GEO).
• In response to the planned 2020 de-commission of the R/V Marcus G. Langseth, the Senate report directs NSF to brief Congress on future plans for marine seismic research, including maintaining access to world class research tools.

Thumbs down

• Agency Operation and Award Management receives flat funding and $5 million less than the Administration’s request.

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

USGS	FY 2017	FY 2018	President’s Budget Request for FY 2019	AGU Request FY 2019	House FY 2019 Bill	Senate FY 2019 Bill
Overall	$1,085.12	$1,148.46	$859.68	$1,200.00	$1,167.29	$1,148.00
Ecosystems	$159.73	$157.73	$96.13	–	$157.75	$158.23
Land Resources (formerly Climate and Land Use Change)	$149.28	$152.50	$103.24	–	$158.30	$158.30
Energy, Minerals, & Environmental Health	$94.31	$102.84	$84.11	–	$106.90	$113.64
Natural Hazards	$145.01	$178.61	$117.30	–	$170.11	$157.25
Water Resources	$214.75	$217.55	$164.92	–	$231.12	$220.05
Core Science Systems	$116.05	$116.30	$92.28	–	$119.10	$118.06
Admin & Enterprise Information (Science Support)	$105.61	$102.83	$89.25	–	$103.63	$102.83
Facilities	$100.42	$120.09	$112.45	–	$120.38	$120.09

*USGS budget in millions, rounded to the nearest ten thousand

Thumbs up 

• Energy, Minerals, and Environmental Health mission received an 11% increase in funding over FY2019 spending levels. The report language supports Executive Order 13817, which aims to improve topographic, geological and geophysical mapping and the bill provides $7 million for the new critical minerals initiative.
• The bill outlines support for much of the work done in Natural Hazards, including the purchase of NSF temporary seismometer deployments that were originally used for the EarthScope USArray project. The committee provides $1.4 million for the purchase of the stations.

Thumbs down

• USGS is essentially flat-funded in the Senate funding bill.
• Natural Hazards missions area received a 12% cut in funding from FY2018 funding levels; including a $12 million cut to Volcano Hazards.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

	FY 2017	FY 2018	President’s Budget Request for FY 2019	AGU Request FY 2019	House FY 2019 Bill	Senate FY 2019 Bill
Overall	$8,058.49	$8,058.49	$6,191.89	–	$7,958.00	$8,058.49
Science and Technology	$713.82	$713.82	$448.97	–	$643.76	$706.47
Environmental Programs and Management	$2,619.80	$2,643.30	$1,784.85	–	$2,473.28	$2,598.00

*EPA budget in millions, rounded to the nearest ten thousand

Thumbs up 

• The Senate provided flat funding for the EPA, providing more money than the House proposal and rejecting the drastic cuts in the President’s budget request (PBR).
• The Senate bill explicitly limits the agency’s ability to use funds to reduce workforce and reorganize the agency.
• The Senate bill avoided poison bill riders – or policy additions that create partisan divides – as part of a bipartisan effort to complete the appropriations process on time.

Thumbs down

• Most programs under Science and Technology, which largely funds research at EPA, including the Atmospheric Protection Program, Air and energy research, and chemical safety research, would be cut under the House proposal compared to the FY2018 enacted levels. Science and Technology fares better in the Senate bill but would still be subject to cuts.
• Environmental Programs and Management would receive an almost 2% cut from FY2018 spending levels.

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

	FY 2017	FY 2018	President’s Budget Request for FY 2019	AGU Request FY 2019	House FY 2019 Bill	Senate FY 2019 Bill
Overall	$30,786.01	34,520.05	$30,533.00	–	$35,494.25	$34,990.02
Office of Science	$5,392.00	$6,259.90	$5,413.00	$6,600.00	$6,600.00	$6,650.00
ARPA-E	$306.00	$353.31	$0.00	$375.00	$325.00	$375.00

*DOE budget in millions, rounded to the nearest ten thousand

Thumbs up 

• Most programs within the Office of Science saw flat funding or increases. Both the House and Senate increased the overall funding levels for DOE.

• Like the House, the Senate bill contains language rejecting the cuts to ARPA-E and prohibits the agency from using any of the funds to terminate the agency. Additionally, the bill increases funding for the program by 6% over FY2018 funding levels.
• The Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) is a priority for the Administration. Both the House and Senate concurred with the Administration’s proposal by increasing funding for the program. The Senate bill proposes $980 million for the program.
• The Senate bill rejected the Administration’s dramatic cuts to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and flat-funded the program.